Kansas hosts the 100th Kansas Relays on Friday, April 14, 2023 at Rock Chalk Park.

A pair of freshmen finished in third place in their respective 5,000-meter races as the top finishers from the Kansas track and field team on the opening day of the Kansas Relays.

Kaitlyn Swartz, from Papillon, Nebraska, finished with a time of 17 minutes, 59.84 seconds to take third in the women’s event.

She had previously competed in the 5K in the fall as part of KU’s cross-country team. Swartz spent much of the race in second place but got passed by Cloud County Community College’s N Vanee Anchike within the final 800 meters. Freshman Emery Mayfield of Saint Louis University surged into first midway through and ended up winning by a nine-second margin.

Swartz was one of 10 KU or KU-affiliated athletes who were expected to compete in the women’s 5K, half of whom actually took part in the race. Kenadi Krueger, who won the event at last year’s Kansas Relays, did not. Tori Wingrove, who came in second in 2024, led this year’s race for the first 2,600 meters but slipped to third and then did not finish.

The other finishers from KU besides Swartz were midyear addition Irine Jepkirui (ninth, 18:42.90), who competed unattached, as well as Caroline Burrow (11th, 18:54.58) and Eden Schwarz (14th, 19:16.63).

In the men’s competition, another freshman, Free State High School product Blake Wohler, held steady in third place for much of the 5K and remained in that same spot as he crossed the finish line with a time of 14:59.13.

Sibonelo Khumalo of Colby Community College took first at 14:24.35, although KU’s redshirt junior Peter Walsdorf and freshman Samuel Trumble had occupied the top two spots for the first 3,000 meters before they did not finish and Khumalo and SLU’s Manny Vela were able to jump ahead.

Elsewhere on Thursday, a pair of Jayhawks placed in the top 10 in the unseeded women’s 800-meter run, with Grace Cramblett in fourth (2:19.60) and Lauren Heck, a senior pentathlete, in ninth (2:24.85).

In another of KU’s top finishes on the day, Payton Kasper cleared 4.82 meters for sole possession of fourth place in the men’s unseeded pole vault, but wasn’t able to get past 4.97, the bar that resulted in the winning score. Eudora native Conor Dunback, a sophomore, was close behind at a personal-best 4.67 in sixth place.

Weston Van Camp’s best result in six attempts at the hammer throw was a personal-best 55.63 meters, though it was good for just eighth place as competitors from Iowa and Iowa State occupied the top five spots.

In the women’s version of the event, four KU freshmen finished between 19th and 24th of the 24 athletes who recorded a result.

Friday’s action begins at 8 a.m. with high school relays. The first KU athletes are in action at 9:15 a.m. in preliminary action for the 100- and 110-meter hurdles.